What sport do you recommend?

[vvizard]

I would like to start taking shots at sports. It's winter in norway now, so I would be best off starting with indoor I think =) I think basketball is fun to watch. Some years ago I played for the junior (whatever it's called in english), something like the "state-team?" The thing before the national team, but broken down into smaller geographical areas (and in norway we don't have states, so I guess it's called county-team or something).. Yeahyeah, whatever. The point is, I know most of the coaches at our team, at least if they haven't changed too many of them, so getting approval from them to hang around at their matches taking photos I don't see as a problem. What I might see as a problem though, is what will the parents and players will think of a 20-year old boy hanging around their matches taking pictures of their 14-year old daughters :-P I can of course limit myself to the mens team, but I don't know if the parents will look any better on that one =)

Ok, back to the point. I own a 10D, a 50mm f/1.4, and a Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8. Should this cover my needs? Maybe a 550EX or a 420 to go with them? And what sports is the best to start out with. Something a little challenging, but not _way_ to hard to get a grip on. We have local teams for mostly anything. Basketball, soccer, handball, ice-hockey, ++++ So I can choose from pretty much anything here. I think ICE-hockey might be to fast/difficult to start with. In BB at least the ball is large enough to track with the eyes. I also know BB very well, and through my own "BB-career" I was always told I was very good at interpreting what the opposite team was up to, and made a lot of steals. Guess beeing good at reading the next move is a great pluss when you try to shoot great shots.

So, taken my equipment into measure, would BB be a good sport for me to practice on, or do you have any other you would recommend higher? Of course, the sport have to be somewhat cool to watch, else I'll be bored =)

[defordphoto]

BB would be fine. Personally I do not like BB, but I wouldn't mind shooting it. Shooting people involved in any sport is fun. Catching them at their moments of pure concentration and battle is awesome no matter what the sport.

I had the same dilemma in wanting to shoot girl's soccer. Not really any particular age group, but I just think girls look cool playing soccer.

I thought about going out and just shooting a few matches at the local school over the weekends, but decided that the parents might be concerned about a 50 yeard old man shooting photos of their 13 year old girls. Especially having no particular connection to the team, the school or anything else.

Until one of the parents invited my wife and I to shoot. We went to one game with no cameras in tow and met some of the parents and the coaches. Explained what we were doing and that we would be selling shots if anyone wanted them.

Once we did that, then everything was fine. The best thing is to introduce yourself to the coaches and then let them introduce you to the team.

[vvizard]

Yeah, that might be an idea. I know the coaches of the local BB-team. I've played for them myself for many years. If any one turns out good, I might even give them away for free to use on their website. Then of course, I wouldn't reject it if parents wanted to buy any of them =)

But from my equipment-point-of-view, do I have what I need with the 50mm f/1.4 and the 70-200mm f/2.8? Should I get a flash, or is it better to bump up the ASA? Or maybe a combination. If I can get away with shots without flash, I would prefer it. I think the light in theese arenas are a little bit above normal house-ligtning, but nothing like sunlight. And to be honest, I have no experience shooting in sport-arenas.

[defordphoto]

Knowing the coaches is a bonus for sure. I would not expect them to allow you to shoot flash as it could hinder play. Bump the ISO to 800 or 1600 and go for it.

[daaaveman]

You're 70-200 is a great lense for this. You'll learn to appreciate the 2.8. One word of advise, if you start a website for this, password protect it and assure the parents that it is not publicly accessible. Parents freak out about their kids being put on public sites. Don't do Snapfish or Webshots or anything. I've read your posts and I'm sure you're capable of putting up your own site. Have fun!

[f2fanatic]

Since you are in Norway, why not XC skiing? When or if the weather gets around zero, it could be very interesting. I'm from Canada and winter is here also.

[GenEOS]

On a side note about being seen as a pervert at the local high school. This is a serious subject. Many criminal child molesters use the tools of our profession to lure children to them.

I shoot for 4 papers here in Houston. I make sure to have credentials with me at all times when shooting at schools or whenever an assignment involves children.

If parents are around, it helps to communicate with them, don't just stand there, be friendly, introduce yourself. If you know the coach, give him your name and contact info, to share with parents, so they can contact you. Most parents would love to have a nice action shot of their kid playing their sport...

It is a crying shame that we as professionals and serious amateurs have to worry about this. But it is a fact of life these days.

[vvizard]

Yeah I believe you. I had never actually thought about this, before I was trying to compose this post to ask if my equipment was alright. Then I just thought. *hmm* If I had a daughter at 10-14, wouldn't it've freaked me out if some dude was hanging around her BB-practices taking pictures of her? Probably I think :-P

XC skiing? What's that? Since I ride a lot of snowboard (at least used to) I think I'll hang around the snowboard-parks at our local ski-resort a lot this winter. For the moment, the norwegian champion in bigjump, is an old friend of mine, which grew up just some kilometers away. We hanged around quite a bit as small kids, and still say hi when we occationally meet. If I'm lucky, he'll show up at our local mountain while I'm there. Not that it would help my camera-skills, but having a truly great snowboarder makes the task a little easier I hope :) I would hate getting many great-shots ruined by many not-so-great snowboarders =)

I even think I could earn my first bucks of photography up there if I can get some good shots. Many great talents in the 13-16 year group up here (yeah it's just something about norwegians and winter-sports :-P) who probably would love to get a poster of them self on the wall, right next to the posters of their own stars.

Since I know a lot of the riders, it'll probably won't take long before most of the riders knows why that jerk is standing around there with a camera all day, and got his web-address memorized =)

[Belmondo]

How about curling? You can use a tripod.

[vvizard]

hehe, well.. Curling is seriously one of the few things I don't think we have a local team for. And to be true, I don't really enjoy it _that_ much either. Didn't quite know much about curling until the Norwegians took gold medal at it in Salt-lake.. Yup, us and winter-sports =)

Although some others will probably just say: Norwegians drugs :-P

[Belmondo]

The obvious advantages to curling are:
1. Lots of time to setup shots.
2. The consumption of massive quantities of alcohol is not likely to affect your ability to capture the action
3. You can nap between shots.

What could be better?

[deztoys]

Not sure there are any of these in your area, especially in the winter, but check your local running clubs to see if they have a series of novelty runs. Some may be like the Muddy Buddy series, or Like the Camp Pendleton World Famous Mud Run. I found these to be good things to hang out at and get some pretty fun pictures. I stumbled on these because my wife and a few friends wanted to participate. If you want check in my pBase acct www.pbase.com/snj to see some of the pics.

Scott

[robertwgross]

f2fanatic wrote:
Since you are in Norway, why not XC skiing?

Exactly. In California, we have two types of cross country skiing races. One is very competitive with international skiers. The other is called a citizen race, and hundreds of ordinary people show up for it.

For shooting the former, you will have to get yourself into a good position where you can move easily from one part of the track to another. The racers may be going fast, so it is often good to shoot them slowed down as they go uphill.

For shooting the latter, the same points apply, but it tends to be more of a crowd scene. One pro photographer normally sits about one mile from the finish line where the skiers are all tired and slowed down, and he shoots each skier as they go by, being careful that the racer bib number shows. Then he gets the official entry information from the race officials and mails out a tiny contact print to each racer and offers large prints for a price. Even if you only get a quarter of the racers to buy, that can be a good deal. But you would have to be the kind of photographer who can ski out and shoot there half of the day without a break.

---Bob Gross---

[vvizard]

Ah, cross-country yes.. Silly me didn't realize XC stood for that :) That might be a good idea actually. Cause, believe it or not, I wen't six years in class (same school as the snowboarder) with the current Norwegian junior-champion in XC. Silver-medal in the junior-world-championship in (what the heck it's called) where you have several racers going after each other. When the first is in, the second goes out.. Anyways, I still know him somewhat, cause I'm in math-class with his younger brother now, and he too is almost as good, but still a little young to compete for gold in junior-championship. But anyway, I'm sure I can get good info on when/where the good races will be. These juniors are probably the best bet, cause shooting the world-stars probably don't mean much income =)

And actually, I don't make up all theese sport-releations =) There's just magically a lot of them from this tiny little place in norway =) Another guy I wen't in school with for _many_ years and was a good friend of, is also becoming one of the great snowboarders in this country (which then again are among world-class (if not _THE_ world class =))) This place got one of Norways best men (and his wife on the women-side) on the (yeah english word's again :-P) XC+shooting :-P Don't have a personal relationship to them though. But I have another quite "cool" relation.

I love to shoot dragraces. And I'm a good friend with a quite special girl. She got her own Ford Mustang 1969 (Mach-model I think) and races in the nation-wide street-legal league. That's dragraces over 1/8 mile, using stock-cars, which have to have valid license-plates for normal driving, and none nitrous-oxide permitted. And she's so darn good looking (classical blond bimbo-look, with beautiful face/body), that when she rolled into the starting-grid, the crowd went like, WTF? Is this a market-stunt, pulled by a magazine, by one of their cover-girls? But it wasn't.. The lights wen't green, she hammered the pedal, did the gears with the best precission, in several races, over and over again, and won.. _TWO_ friggin days after taking her drivers license! If I was one of the pro's racing that league, beaten by a 18-year old "bimbo"-girl, I would've retired on the spot I think =]

Anyway, enough "bragging" about all my opportunites in virtually every sport around here =) The good thing about the latter story, is that dragraces is one of the things I enjoy most watching. Shot one once too, and it was great. So close that last time I used ~ 120mm focal-length to fill a car in the frame. Hopefully, she can get me "inside" to do some shooting of the teams between races, where they do engine-tuning, repairs, etc..

Now that I consider all my opportunites around here, I hardly can't wait to start shooting some sport-action =) Dragrace might be a good place to earn some bucks too I think. The pro-racers probably have the inside of their garage-walls full of pictures of them self, but since this is a race where you can pay to start with virtually any car with a license plate, there's a lot of new kids who just wan't to "test" their brand new BMW's and other cars. I actually think that they think, that they stand a chance against the 60-70's mustang's and corvettes.. *gees* :-P But if they can afford their car, they can probably afford a large-printed memory of themself getting humiliated by 18-year old bimbo's too =)

Yeah, and btw: I wan't a Ford Mustang. I have a 10D, anyone up for a trade? :-P

Thanks for the info in this thread. It've been truly appreciated!